In Parents’ Own Words: Documenting the Stories of Separated Families in Honduras

We are in the midst of a new family separation crisis.

Since assuming office in January, the second Trump administration has actively pursued a variety of detention and deportation practices that tear parents from their children and leave them at risk of long-term, even permanent separation.

Over six days in late November 2025, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) traveled to Honduras, where approximately 300 people are being returned every day, to speak with people immediately after their deportation from the United States. Our delegation spoke with service providers, doctors, psychologists, government officials, and newly arrived deported adults who had just disembarked from deportation flights. Through interviews with dozens of adults who arrived without their children, WRC and PHR learned the nature of the family separation crisis currently unfolding.

What we saw violates longstanding US policy to preserve family unity.

Families belong together. After sitting with these parents and documenting their stories, WRC and PHR urge the US government to ensure that the necessary protections and procedures are in place to ensure that parents can make decisions about what happens to their children. We must also invest in receiving countries’ ability to support deported parents’ reunification with their children.